California Album, a bit of beach and an adventure

My holiday project this summer is to use our gazzillion photos from numerous trips to California to make a California album.

I have already made a few pages but decided to do the title page today. I knew what I wanted to achieve and it didn't work out in the way I expected, of course, but I think it works anyway.

I wanted a beach sort of feel as there are some wonderful beaches but I also wanted to express the great outdoors as we have loved some of the national parks we have visited and that was the bit that didn't work out as when I tired sequoias witht he beach it just didn't work. In the end I opted for just the beach and a map.

 

 

The letters echo the map theeme with letters filled with maps and then printed, mounted on to chipboard and cut out.

They are buried in the sand.

 

And yes I also used some real sand from years ago and some teeny shells.

The palm treees were printed (a Dawn Inskip special) and then mounted onto thick card and cut out.

The map was just downloaded off the internet and printed on cardstock and I used some old California stickers.

 

Continuing the beach theme there is a great Studio Mix collab released today and as Dawn Inskip was one of the contibutors I got to play with the kit and it is all beachy and summery (we just need the sun now)

So this was one of the pages I made with the kit.

 

Emily, of course.

I went out for coffee with Jakki this morning, which was lovely as I hadn't seen her in almost a week. Then Nij and I went and bought the new suite ready for the Downstairs cloakroom which is being fitted in september. We had finally - after a long time - found what we wanted so didn't want to wait until September and find it was no longer available. So all done. A little light shopping in Matalan and the Range and that pretty much sums up my day!

And so to day 2 of the Explore class. Adventure.

I guess if you were looking for a word to sum me up you may well go with cautious. I am very cautious in everything I do. I will always look for pitfalls and try to eradicate them with anything i do. I have had my moments of adventure. I rode a Harley down the Strip in las Vegas to celebrate my 50th birthday last year. I have swum with dolphins, I have cuddled a fully grown tiger, I have held a tarantula (and I am a died in the wool arachnaphobe) and I do own a Fiki monster, but I am not the world's most adventurous person. My adventures are carefully planned.

But I knew just what I wanted to record for this prompt.

I made my own postcard.

This is the back - I will address it and send it later.  I have also copied the text here as you will never be able to read it from the image LOL.

 
It reads ....

Note to self,

I was at my most adventurous when I went to America for the first time in 1983, totally unprepared. I had never travelled out of Europe and yet crossed the Atlantic at the drop of a hat. I had no visa, no passport, no money and three days notice. Nij asked me on the Wednesday if I fancied a holiday; we’d been dating just over a month. I said sure, where and he replied America. I’d always longed to go and figured it would be exciting to plan. When I asked when he said ‘Saturday!’ A new job meant now or never for him. 4 am on the Thursday I drove to Newport to get a passport . 5 am on the Friday I drove to London to the American Embassy to get a visa. I borrowed the money off my parents and on the Saturday we flew, standby, to America.

These days I am a planner. I plan everything meticulously. Every detail. Every possible eventuality. Where did that young carefree girl go? Where did that free spirit that was prepared to travel across the world at the drop of hat disappear to? When did I become the planner and worrier that I am now? Age and experience is the answer I guess. I had no conception of any possible pitfalls, so I wasn’t worried about them. But do you know what ... things did go wrong on that trip, but we survived. It wasn’t all plain sailing, but we figured it out and we had a great time. Maybe I need to re-kindle some of that impetuosity, some of that carefree joi de vivre and worry and plan less. Maybe I need to focus on putting the adventure back in my life a little.

From your older, more cautious self, with careful consideration x

 

 

 

This is the front - a photo from that very trip. Me at 23 being very very adventurous.

 

 
I need to re-kindle that less cautious approach to life .... at times and with careful consideration of course!!!

Today I am thankful for

• time to scrap
• Coffee with a friend
• Remembering to be adventurous and what that felt like.

 

 

Comments

[Sandi Robinson]

I love your postcard...& I can so identify with your 'note to self'...Your title page for you California Album is stunning too! :)

[yvonne howells]

what a great blog. thanks for your comments on mine. I am loving the class but will get a bit behind once I am back at work, but the fun will be catching up with it. Hugging a tiger I would just love that
Hugs
Yvonne

[Mary B]

where do I start, Great LO (but I have already told you that. Love the photo on your postcard. Did you hand write it or print it? you certainly got a lot on it. All in all a great post and I love what you have said about where is the impetuous self, because mine has disappeared to.

[madeline St onge]

WOW Dolly you are a dare devil I think.